#1165: Sugar Mountain/When You Dance I Can Really Love – Neil Young

Peak Month: April 1971
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKVN chart
Peak Position #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #93
YouTube.com: “Sugar Mountain”
Lyrics: “Sugar Mountain”
YouTube.com: “When You Dance I Can Really Love”
Lyrics: “When You Dance I Can Really Love”

Neil Young was born in Toronto in 1945. His family moved to Omemee, Ontario, and he contracted polio in 1951, two years before the polio vaccine was introduced. He learned guitar and dropped out of high school. He played in the Winnipeg based band called The Squires, who toured parts of Manitoba and northern Ontario. They played instrumental covers of Cliff Richard’s backup band, The Shadows. Young moved to California in 1966 where he was a founding member of the Buffalo Springfield. In 1968 he released his self-titled debut studio album. And in 1969 he became the fourth member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Since then he has released 35 studio albums and more live and compilation albums.

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#1166: Teen Angel by Wednesday

Peak Month: June 1974
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Teen Angel” ~ Mark Dinning version
“Teen Angel” lyrics ~ Original Mark Dinning version
YouTube.com: “Teen Angel” ~ Wednesday version
“Teen Angel” lyrics ~ Wednesday version (see below)

“Teen Angel” is a teenage tragedy song written by Jean Dinning and her husband, Red Surrey. It became a hit for Jean’s brother, Mark Dinning, in 1959. “Teen Angel” was released in October 1959. The song was not an instant success, with radio stations in the U.S. banning the song, considering it too sad. Despite the reluctance of radio stations, the song continued to climb the charts. In the last week of 1959, the single jumped from #100 to #50 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It went on to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1960. In the UK it climbed to #37 on the UK Singles Chart, despite being  banned from being played by the BBC. At the end of 1960 Billboard ranked it as the #5 song of the year.

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#1168: Cousin Mary by Fludd

Peak Month: November 1973
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Cousin Mary”
Lyrics: “Cousin Mary”

Fludd had its roots in a band called The Pretty Ones, formed by Ed Pilling and Greg Godovitz. The band was briefly part of Toronto’s Yorkville scene in the 1960s, but broke up before achieving much commercial success. Pilling and his brother Brian then moved to Birmingham, England, where they formed a band called Wages of Sin and spent some time touring as a backing band for Cat Stevens in 1970. However, disagreement over musical direction with Stevens led the brothers to return to Toronto by the end of the year. Inspired by the then-emerging psychedelic blues rock sound of British acts such as Small Faces, they then reunited with Godovitz, and recruited drummer John Andersen and guitarist Mick Walsh to create Fludd.

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Peak Month: June 1976
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Old Time Movie”

Lisa Hartt was born in 1946, and when she turned 45 CTV did a lifestyle feature in 1991. At the time Hartt was attending Concordia University’s Communication Art’s Program. By the time Lisa was fifteen she was performing as a backup vocalist for bands in Montreal. She took the stage name Lisa Hartt. In 1973, while in Montreal, she formed her own band called The Lisa Hartt Band. After a few changes in the line-up, by 1976 the band consisted of bass player Denny Gerrard (Paupers, Lighthouse), guitarist and vocalist Rayburn Blake (Mashmakhan), keyboard player and vocalist Richard Yuen (Tranquillity Base) and drummer and vocalist Marty Cordrey (Bearfoot, Small Wonder). Lisa Hartt was the lead vocalist and also played acoustic guitar.

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#1170: On The Way Home by Buffalo Springfield

Peak Month: November 1968
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #82
YouTube.com: “On The Way Home”
Lyrics: “On The Way Home”

In 1966 a folk-rock band was formed in Los Angeles from a mix of Canadian and American musicians. It was called Buffalo Springfield. The band consisted of Stephen Stills (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Dewey Martin (drums, vocals), Bruce Palmer (electric bass), Richie Furay (guitar, vocals), and Neil Young (guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals). Like the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield’s debut album blended musical strains of folk and country music with British invasion. However, their second album, Buffalo Springfield Again, showcased their shift into psychedelic rock. The name of the group was inspired after the Buffalo-Springfield steamroller made by the Buffalo-Springfield Roadroller Company in Springfield, Ohio.

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#1408: Big Bright Eyes by Danny Hutton

Peak Month: January 1966
7 weeks on CFUN chart
Peak Position #17
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
CFUN Twin Pick ~ December 11, 1965
YouTube.com link: “Big Bright Eyes”

Irish-American singer Daniel Anthony “Danny” Hutton was born in 1942 in Buncrana, Donegal, Ireland. He is best known as one of the three lead vocalists in the band Three Dog Night. In his early twenties Hutton became a songwriter and singer for Hanna Barbera Records in 1965 and 1966. In 1965 Hutton had a modest hit called “Roses And Rainbows” that did best in California. It peaked at #3 in San Jose, Flint, Michigan and Orlando, Florida, #8 in Los Angeles and Oxnard, California, #9 in Austin, Texas, and #20 in Vancouver. during his tenure as a recording artist for Hanna-Barbera Records. He would record a third single for the label in 1966, “Funny How Love Can Be” that went Top Ten in San Bernardino and Los Angeles.

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#1173: Do It To ‘Em by B.T.B. – 4

Peak Month: June 1967
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
6 additional weeks on the CFUN All-Canadian Top Ten
YouTube.com: “Do It To ‘Em”

Toronto singer Tommy Graham joined his first band in 1958 and managed to work his way through the Toronto club scene with Kay Taylor And The Regents at the legendary Club Bluenote. Following this, he took one year away from the business, traveled to Los Angeles to hone his musical skills and developed contacts there. Returning to Canada he, and some others, formed the group Big Town Boys. The group gained prominence as backing musicians for vocalist Shirley Matthews on Tamarac Records. The band broke out on its own with after being signed to RCA/Victor under the name Tommy Graham & The Big Town Boys for one single called “Put You Down” in 1965. The tune climbed to number 40 on CHUM radio in Toronto.

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#1175: Cinderella by Paul Anka

Peak Month: September 1961
5 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #70
YouTube.com: “Cinderella”
Lyrics: “Cinderella”

Paul Anka was 16 years old when he had a number one hit with “Diana” in 1957, a song he wrote about a girl in the church he attended. (Diana Ayoub, who inspired Anka to pen the song, died in December 2022). He continued to have a string of Top Ten and Top 20 hits into 1963 in Canada, the United States, the UK and Italy. But with the British Invasion, Paul Anka was sidelined not to return to the pop charts until his #1 hit in 1974, “You’re Having My Baby”. The song was a duet with Odia Coates. The duo enjoyed a string of Top 20 hits in Canada and the USA including 1974’s “One Man Woman/One Woman Man”, 1975’s “I Don’t Like To Sleep Alone” and “(I Believe) There’s Nothing Stronger Than Our Love”.

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#1177: But You Lied by Cathy Carroll

Peak Month: December 1962
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
CFUN Twin Pick Hit ~ November 24, 1962
YouTube.com: “But You Lied”

Wikipedia says Cathy Carroll was born Carolyn Stern in 1939. However, both Billboard Magazine and Radio Television Daily wrote in 1963 that Carroll was 17 years old at the time. Doing the math, that puts Carolyn Stern’s birth around 1946. Cathy Carroll seemed from the start to be aiming for an award for drama queen among girl singers in the early rock ‘n roll era. In the previous decade Johnnie Ray would tear at his hair and fall on the floor sobbing before his fans as he sang his 1951 million selling hits “Cry,”and “The Little White Cloud That Cried”. From his histrionic performances Ray earned the nicknames the “Nabob of Sob” and “Mr. Emotion”. Cathy Carroll would later record “Cry” as well, perhaps as a nod to her musical soulmate.

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#1178: A Broken Vow by The Chordettes

Peak Month: August 1960
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #102
YouTube.com: “A Broken Vow”
Lyrics: “A Broken Vow”

The Chordettes were a female quartette comprised of  Janet Ertel and her sister-in-law, Carol Buschmann, Dorothy “Dottie” Schwartz, and Jinny Osborn. They formed in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 1946. In 1952 Lynn Evans replaced Schwartz. Originally they sang folk music similar to The Weavers. However, they shifted their sound to barbershop harmony or close harmony. Jinny Osborn was born in Seattle, Washington. She was born Virginia Cole. Her father, O. H. “King” Cole, was president of the Barbershop Harmony Society. After local performances in Sheboygan, the Chordettes were winners on Arthur Godfrey’s radio program Talent Scouts in 1949. They appeared daily on Godfrey’s program, and made a number of 10-inch EPs for Columbia Records.

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